A New Life
by DOTB18
Summary: 'Why is everyone looking at me like that? It's like they've never seen a dragon before' I look down at myself to see what all the gawking was for. '... Well that explains a bit.'


**_How to Train Your Dragon _belongs to DreamWorks and Cressida Cowell.**

**Edit: Ack! I forgot to credit Backroads as the beta for this chapter! Sorry!**

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Growing up, I was always told that after you die, you go to either one of two places. If you were good, you get to go to Heaven; if you were bad, you go to Hell. That doesn't seem to be true in my case. See, after I died, (I'm not going into any detail about that, it's not a pleasant memory) I kind of just "floated" about in nothingness for a while. It was weird being dead; I never felt hungry or tired, I didn't feel anything. I couldn't see, hear, smell, taste or touch. All that seemed to be left of me was my consciousness. Or my soul, or spirit, or whatever else you want to call it. Bottom line, I was intangible.

Now, I have no idea how long I was like that. Being dead, you have no senses, therefore you have no sense of time. It could have been months. It could have been minutes. It could have been millennia, for all I know.

Then something really weird happened. I began to hear something.

_Tha-thump, tha-thump_

Distant at first…

_Tha-thump, tha-thump_

it grew into a cacophony so immense that I swear to you it could have been heard far away in space.

_THA-THUMP, THA-THUMP_

As I tried to find the source of the sound…

_THA-THUMP, THA-THUMP_

I began to realize that not only was I hearing it…

_THA-THUMP, THA-THUMP_

I was also _feeling_ it.

_THA-THUMP, THA-THUMP_

It was my heart. I was alive. I was feeling so happy that it started beating faster.

_THA-THUMP-THA-THUMP-THA-THUMP_

Maybe I didn't die. Maybe I survived that crash and just slipped into a coma and now I was coming out of it!

When I tried to move, however, things didn't add up. It didn't feel like I was lying in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm and tubes down my throat. I felt cramped into the fetal position. I also realized that I wasn't hearing the beep of a heart monitor, or any other hospital noises, just that steady and constant _tha-thump_. I tried to open my eyes, but they just wouldn't open. What was most unnerving was that it didn't feel like I was breathing. But then again, it didn't feel like I needed to breath at the moment. Moving my arm a bit, I felt a viscous liquid run through my fingers.

And then I touched something. I recoiled a bit, then extended my arm again. Whatever I was touching, it felt kind of hard, lined with something soft. I was beginning to have an idea of what was going on, but I had to make sure. Moving my arm again, I felt along my stomach. And I hit something. There, tethered to were my belly-button should be, was an umbilical cord. Then it dawned on me. That liquid was amniotic fluid. I was surrounded on all sides by a uterus.

I did die, but I didn't stay dead. I've been born again. Well, technically I wasn't born _yet_, but you get the idea.

This was actually pretty cool. Most people don't remember their time in the womb. I wonder who my new mom will be? Who will I be? I doubt I'd be reborn as Thommas Oniel again. Who knows? I might even be a girl.

For the fun of it, I decided to do something that most babies in the womb tend to do; I kicked. That's when my conclusions of what was going on veered off course.

First of all, my foot didn't feel right. When I kicked, I expected a flat foot to hit the wall. Instead, it hit with just the ball and the toes. My heel was much further back than it should have been.

Secondly, the wall was a bit harder than I expected. Being made of soft flesh, shouldn't it have some give to it? Instead, I got a resounding _thud_.

And finally, there was no reaction to the kick. If it definitely had been a womb, I probably would have heard a murmuring from my "mother" saying something along the lines of, "Oh, the baby's kicking."

So, what's going on? If I'm not in a womb, then where am I? Wait, a hard wall… eggshells are hard. Does that mean I'm in an egg? If that's the case, I guess I'm not human. So what am I?

To start off my "self-inspection", I brought my hands (or should it be "paws" now) up to my face. Yep, I have a snout. Reaching out again, I kind of waved my arms from side to side, and felt something that felt back. Because of the way my brain works, I had the impulse to think that I was touching the lowest part of my spine. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that's my tail. For the last test, I stretched out all my limbs.

This is when it got a little surprising. Well, more so than the other times. See, when I reached out, I touched the shell with my forepaws in front of me, my hind paws below me… and my wings behind me.

Whoa, wait a second, WHAT? I have _wings_? _And_ four legs? What the Hell am I, some kind of freakish dinosaur or something? I wanted answers. I wanted out. I wanted out NOW! I started kicking furiously, clawing at the walls, and stretching myself to try and force the egg open. I kept at it until the shell cracked. I started to pry the shell apart and push my head out. As the fluid went rushing out, air came rushing in and I took my first breath.

Let make things clear; hatching is exhausting work. With my head sticking out, I pried my for-paws on either side of the crack and pushed. The egg split open, and left me tumbling out. The air felt cold and the goo covering my body wasn't helping. I still couldn't see, but depending on what I am, they probably won't be opening for some time. And I was absolutely spent. But none of that mattered right now.

I was out.

With the last bit of my strength, I opened my mouth for a victory shout. What came out was a pitiful whine, like a newborn puppy. I didn't really care at that point.

Plopping myself onto the floor, I realized that it was kind of soft and dry. I think it was hay. It felt kind of nice.

As I was about to fall asleep, I could hear footfalls and the ground beneath me began to shake. Someone was coming. Then I felt really hot air rush over me, followed by a soft, but very loud, grumbling.

"_Well, this must be mom," _I thought to myself.

Then I heard something really unexpected; someone spoke.

Or rather shouted.

"Toothless; no! We do _not_ eat babies!"

It sounded like a girl, probably in her teens. Wait, did she just call "mom" Toothless? That's a weird name, but I think I might of heard it before. The girl sounded familiar too.

"Astrid, will you calm down, please? Toothless isn't eating anyone. Are ya, buddy?"

This was followed by a patting sound, a soft warble that was almost like a purr, and an indignant huff.

So now there's another person here, this time a boy, about the same age, I think. And apparently the girl's name is Astrid. The names and the voices are all very familiar but I can't seem to place faces to them. This is driving me nuts.

Despite myself, I whimpered. This obviously got someone's attention, because I was immediately lifted into the air and wrapped in something really soft, probably a blanket.

"Hey little guy," the girl cooed as she started to dry me off. "Welcome to Berk."

Berk. I know I've heard of this place before. But why do I get the feeling it's not supposed to exist?

"Wait, how do you know it's male?" the boy asked.

"Just a girls intuition, Hiccup."

Hiccup? Oh no, don't tell me it's actually Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. And Astrid Hofferson. And Toothless, the Night Fury. That means…

I fainted before I could come to the realization that I was 12 days north of Hopeless and a few degrees south of Freezing to Death.

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"Aw, he fell asleep," said Astrid as she continued drying off Berk's newest resident.

Toothless craned his neck to get a better look, and what he saw made his eyes widen in confusion. Hiccup noticed and looked to see why his best friend was looking at the hatchling like that. What he saw left him just as confused.

"Hey Astrid, aren't dragons supposed to be scaly?"

She looked at him incredulously. "Why yes, Hiccup, dragons _are _scaly," she said in feigned surprise, every word laced with condescending sarcasm.

Hiccup didn't notice. "Well, this one's… fuzzy."

"… What?"

She looked down at the baby dragon, thinking her boyfriend had finally lost it, but sure enough, it was covered snout to tail in downy feathers.

After a moment of stunned silence, she finally said, "Well that's different."

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**For those who are curious; no, I do not actually believe in reincarnation, being an ex-Catholic agnostic. However, I do find the idea interesting and makes for good story material.**

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